Clarinet Virtuoso Kornel Wolak and Composers Norbert Palej and Charles T. Cozens Bring the Clarinet Concerto Into a New Century on ‘MESH’

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Three friends. Two brand new concertos. One clarinet. ‘MESH,’ out today through Slammin Media and distributed worldwide by Believe, brings together three giants of Canadian classical music. Polish Canadian clarinettist Kornel Wolak is the star soloist, and the album pairs two brand new concertos written especially for him. One is by Norbert Palej, and the other is by conductor and composer Charles T. Cozens, who leads the Burlington New Millennium Orchestra on the recording. Both pieces are world premiere recordings.

A concerto is classical music’s version of a headliner with a killer backing band: one soloist out front, a full orchestra behind them, and plenty of back and forth between the two. On ‘MESH,’ that soloist is Wolak. Palej and Cozens each wrote with his voice in mind, and you can hear it in every phrase. Both concertos surround the clarinet with lush strings, the shimmer of vibraphone and harp and a wide palette of percussion, so the colours, rhythms and moods are always shifting.

“Working on music composed by good friends is a reciprocal process,” Wolak says. “I get to know the composer-friend better as a human being while studying their music. I also learn about them by trying to understand what they expect of me. After all, every musical gesture in such a composition was written with the intention that I would be the one expressing it.”

“It is also personal in the sense that I get to ‘live inside their head’ through analysing their work, guessing at the emotional states behind the notes, and then finding ways to express them through the clarinet. It is a journey from complexity to simplicity,” he adds. “Fortunately, in the case of the two concertos on MESH, when in doubt, I could always call the composer and ask for help. And that usually sparks great conversations!”

Palej’s ‘Sursum,’ Latin for “upward,” opens the album. It’s a three-movement piece rooted in minimalism, the style built on repeating patterns that slowly bloom and change, much like a great ambient track or film score. The opening movement, “Sursum,” climbs into the clarinet’s high, bright upper range. “Amor” wraps it in warm, glowing harmonies, and “Simul” closes on a burst of rhythmic energy.

“People often think contemporary classical music is difficult to listen to, harsh, and depressing. I don’t blame them: much of it in the 20th century was like this,” Palej says. “But this is a new century! And I want beauty, and brightness, and mystery, and a music that draws in any open-minded listener who searches for new emotion.”

“I believe in luminous simplicity. Like looking into someone’s eyes: the eye is simple, yet infinitely deep, and infinitely complex. You sink into it,” he continues. “I wrote Sursum for Kornel to perform and for Charles to conduct and produce; I knew they would both bring incredible artistic mastery, each in their field. But maybe even more importantly, I knew they would bring a kind of positive energy, which says: let’s make great things happen no matter the challenge!”

“I know Kornel’s silky sound; I know the sensitivity of his ‘singing’ clarinet lines. But most importantly, I know his character, as much as a good friend does. In that sense, everything I wrote here is for him, not just for any player.”

Cozens’ ‘Les Petites Danses Démoniques’ (“The Little Demonic Dances”) is the album’s mischievous, theatrical flip side. It opens with “Les Vauriens” (“The Rascals”), which features a cadenza written by Wolak himself. A cadenza is the moment the orchestra steps aside and the soloist gets the spotlight completely alone, like a guitar solo in a rock show. From there, “Prélude, La Trance et Un Appel à la Prière” drifts into a mystical, trance-like call to prayer, before “Les Danses et Célébration” kicks the party into high gear with driving dance rhythms.

“As I was composing Les Petites Danses Démoniques, I certainly had in mind a very clear idea of what I wanted to capture on the score page. But then as a conductor, to transmit my feelings to the orchestra through clearly defined gesture,” Cozens says. “No matter what, the emotional intent of any music is encoded on the score page. The conductor’s responsibility is to interpret the written music into a living and breathing entity that stimulates an emotional response from the listener.”

“As a composer, what is most important to me is imagery, whether it be pictorial or emotional. Then there is the challenge of capturing this in musical composition with the hope that it will affect a significant number of listeners in the same way.”

Wearing three hats on the same album meant stepping into his friend’s world too. “As a conductor in preparing Sursum, I had to enter the mind of composer Norbert Palej to understand the nature of his writing and translate that information to the orchestra and soloist,” Cozens says. “But in Les Petites Danses Démoniques, because it is my own composition, I knew right away what I wanted to impart to the orchestra and clarinet soloist Kornel Wolak. Kornel was able to bring the music to life with his incredible lyricism, technique, and interpretation.”

“As a producer, the responsibility is to make sure the final mix reflects the intent of both composer and conductor,” he adds. “Both pieces had to be recorded technically very well and mixed with careful precision to capture the emotional imagery created by both Norbert and I as composers.”

The two pieces make perfect partners. “Charles’ Les Petites Danses Démoniques is a complex mosaic of restless, contrasting characters that one can almost join in a dance, while Norbert’s Sursum is more meditative and ‘vast’ in nature,” Wolak says. “There are endless changes of colour, rhythm, and energy. Lots of contrasts. Lots of challenges for me. But—at the same time—a lot of fun!”

Palej hears it the same way. “Charles’s work is just as uplifting – despite its ominous title – only in a different way. There is great humour and an amazing drive in his dances, where my Sursum is more melody centred.”

Cozens produced the album at Toronto’s Revolution Recording with tracking engineer Luke Schindler. Anthony Mancini edited and mixed it, and Wreckhouse Mastering mastered it. The title and cover come from UK painter and sculptor Peter Berry, whose sculpture inspired artistic director Laura van Leest to name the project ‘MESH,’ a fitting image for two contemporary concertos woven onto one album.

Each of the three brings a remarkable résumé. Wolak is a double Fryderyk nominee, Poland’s highest recording honour, and a regular voice on CBC, Classical 96.3 FM and NPR. The Toronto Star praised his “control, and a smooth, elegant expressivity.” He has been the soloist on more than 10 albums, including the 2024 JUNO winning ‘Symphonie de la tempête de verglas.’ He also writes bestselling clarinet method books and researches how the mouth and tongue shape clarinet sound with the Speech-Language Pathology Department at the University of Toronto. He has taught clarinet at Queen’s University since 2018 and tours with the clarinet and accordion duo Bridge & Wolak.

Palej’s music has been performed at Carnegie Hall several times. His 2021 project ‘Return from the Stars,’ created with the European Space Agency, was introduced from aboard the International Space Station and presented at Expo 2020 Dubai. A graduate of Cornell University, The Juilliard School and the New England Conservatory, he is Professor of Composition and Artistic Director of the New Music Festival at the University of Toronto. He has written for the Warsaw Philharmonic and percussion star Dame Evelyn Glennie, and he received the Toru Takemitsu Award from the Japan Society in Boston.

Cozens, a JUNO nominee often called a Renaissance man of Canadian music, has written more than 3,000 orchestrations and compositions. He’s created symphony shows and arrangements for Sir Elton John, Randy Bachman, Janelle Monáe, The Nylons and The Canadian Tenors, and worked with Henry Mancini, Eartha Kitt and Cab Calloway. In 2013 he became the first Canadian invited to conduct in Cuba, leading the Orquesta de Villa Clara. He founded the Burlington New Millennium Orchestra and has been inducted into the Burlington Performing Arts Centre Hall of Fame.

For Wolak, the album is proof that this centuries-old form is thriving. “MESH invokes (at least in me) a mixture of profound joy, lightness, and hope. It would be wonderful if these were everyone’s takeaways after hearing the album,” he says. “MESH also sends another message: one that says that the classical form of the concerto is very much alive and dynamically evolving. It gently plays with listeners’ expectations, showing them its relevance, freshness, and how universal this form can be. It can accompany listeners in everyday life – while commuting in a car or jogging, for example – or be contemplated in the comfort of one’s living room or in a concert hall.”

Cozens hopes listeners “feel emotionally sated after listening to both works; Sursum for its serenity and joy and Les Petites Danses Démoniques for its mischievous imagery and emotional depth.”

Three friends set out to make the clarinet concerto feel new again, and together they’ve made an album built to lift people up. “I hope that what stays with people when they have listened to MESH is a sense of being lifted up,” Palej says. “And yes, I hope my melodies stay with people and become earworms.”

‘MESH’ Track Listing:

“Sursum: I. Sursum” (Norbert Palej)

“Sursum: II. Amor” (Norbert Palej)

“Sursum: III. Simul” (Norbert Palej)

“Les Petites Danses Démoniques: I. Les Vauriens” (Charles T. Cozens, Cadenza by Kornel Wolak)

“Les Petites Danses Démoniques: II. Prélude, La Trance et Un Appel à la Prière” (Charles T. Cozens)

“Les Petites Danses Démoniques: III. Les Danses et Célébration” (Charles T. Cozens)